winterkjm:
Do we know any more about the process? Unless I am mistaken, we still don't actually know much about what might be selected or exactly when, no? Perhaps, some of us can do some sleuthing and find more information?
Yes the Blogosphere has been remarkably quiet on the matter!
Re sites to be dropped from the 2012 list - I really can't see any appetite to continue with either Darwin's Laboratory or the Twin Monasteries. I would be surprised if Creswell Crags survives. This niche is getting rather crowded on the List and there are sites with greater (?) Worldwide significance yet to come forward whereas Creswell's USP is a bit limited ("Nothernmost Cave art in Europe")??. Which leaves, in UK proper, just Shetland (a "definite" in my view) and Chatham (Probably has enough merit and "push" to stay on?) to be carried forward. I presume that the overseas ones will survive -as will the recently added Moravian Church Settlements.
So what of other possible sites with recent "activity"?
Port Sunlight - we know it is
very active and its dating of very late 19th/early 20th C with "Arts and Crafts" credentials seems to fill a gap between the earlier planned industrial towns of New Lanark and Saltaire and later examples on the European continent like Ivrea?
York -
This detailed Report by the "
York World Heritage Steering Group" was tabled in April 2022, showing the significant work which had been done to prepare a T List bid in advance of this year's process. This
Twitter feed reports that a bid was forammly submitted on July 14 2022.
Birkenhead Park - Articles about Port Sunlight seem to assume that it is also putting itself forward but I can find no recent definite confirmation other than
this from July 2022 which seems to suggest a real long term seriousness.
Navan Fort - will surely be added in line with Ireland's new T List entry. I hope so - I have a review of it tucked away waiting!! (Not that I am that enthusiastic about it)
Armagh Observatory - the only "new" (to me) proposal I discovered in this latest trawl.
This article dates from July 2022 - it seems to be a "serious" proposal and they even have
a video!!! Apparently it would be a transnational proposal - but the Republic of Ireland has just concluded its T List review process with no mention of their sites in
Birr and
Dunsink. We know that 6 sites reached the "final consideration stage" and that 3 got accepted but never discovered what the other 3 were - could the "Republic" elements of this have been one of them?? I would have thought that Ireland would have loved to have had a WHS which could be regarded as being in "Dublin" as Dunsink is.
This report even indicates that the IUA (International Astronomy Union") paid a visit a formal visit to all 3 sites in April 2022 "
to consider their potential for nomination for UNESCO World Heritage status." But then - nothing - very strange.
Redhills Durham ("Pitman's Parliament") - As per
this article (Aug 2022) and earlier Forum discussions we can surely expect to see it being put forward to join the other "Workers Assembly halls" in the transnational nomination led by Denmark?
For quick reference these were the 38 sites which put themselves forward for consideration in 2011 - 11 got added (in italic, of which 5 "made it" - bold), 23 got a "No" (=N) and 4 got a "only if transnational" (= TN). Darwin and the Twin Monasteries got "left on" without further consideration at the time on the basis that their nominations were still "active" (Twin Monasteries was "Nominated" and Darwin was "Deferred")
1. Arbroath Abbey (N)
2. Blackpool (N)
3. Brontë Landscape and Haworth Village (N)
4.
Chatham Dockyard and its Defences5. Chester Rows (N)
6. City of York: subsurface archaeological deposits (N)
7. Colchester – Camulodunum and Colonia Victricensis (N)
8.
Creswell Crags9.
England's Lake District10. Former RAF Upper Heyford (N)
11.
Gorham's Cave Complex12. Gracehill Conservation Area (TN)
13. Historic Lincoln (N)
14.
Island of St Helena15.
Jodrell Bank Observatory16. Malone and Stranmillis Historic Urban Landscape (N)
17. MerthyrTydfil (N)
18. Merton Priory (N)
19.
Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof: the Crucible of Iron Age Scotland20. Offa's Dyke England/ Wales Border Earthwork (N)
21. St Andrews – Medieval Burgh and Links (Home of Golf) (N)
22.
Slate Industry of North Wales23. The Birmingham Jewellery Quarter (N)
24. The Birth of the Railway Age: genesis of modern transport (N)
25. The Buildings of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (N)
26. The Dover Strait (N)
27.
The Flow Country 28.
The Forth Bridge (Rail)29. The Fountain Cavern – Anguilla, British West Indies (TN)
30. The Great Western World Heritage Site: the Genesis of Modern Transport (N)
31. The heroic period of civil and marine engineering in England 1822 – 1866: a serial nomination of 4 sites within Bristol (N)
32. The Hill of Derry – Londonderry (N)
33. The Laxey Valley (Isle of Man) (N)
34. The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads (N)
35. The Royal Sites of Ireland – Navan Fort (TN)
36.
Turks and Caicos Islands Cultural and Natural Heritage37. Tynwald Hill and environs: Norse assembly sites of North West Europe (TN)
38. Wye Valley and Forest of Dean (N)
Some could come back in - the rejections were sometimes on the basis of "has potential" - but i can't find any evidence that any of them have been "working in the meantime" to improve the case!! Macintosh (the School of Art fires can't have helped its case!), Golf (Sport), Railways, Derry (to support peace process!), U Heyford (Cold War) all had a door left open.
Which leaves room for "something completely different"! But what? There are plenty of fine country houses, vernacular villages, modern buildings, Universities etc etc.... but they are all a bit "same old, same old" (There must surely be some worthwhile 20th C buildings though??). In the mean time I have found these sites from beyond the 2011 applicants which have indicated some interest or lack thereof -
Alexandra Palace TV Transmitter and Studios. I came across
this out of left field from 2011 - it wasn't put forward - I wonder if it still exists!! in 2015 there was an
impassioned plea to preserve it but I suspect it has been irretrievably altered and lost.
Manchester/Salford was on the 1999 T List - but, if
this article from Oct 2021 is anything to go by has no interest in renewing a bid.
The Uffington White Horse and associated Iron age monuments
indicated an interest back in 2014 of preparing for a 2022 bid - but I can find no evidence that it has done so